The First Year Assessment of Jim Pleiades Hawkins
by FearandLoathingXIX
Summary: A somewhat tumultuous account of Jim's first year at the Interstellar Space Academy.


**First Year Assessment of Jim Pleiades Hawkins**

_Overview_

J. P. Hawkins was accepted to the Interstellar Academy on the recommendation of Captain Amelia Doppler, who not only vouched for the candidate but financed his full tuition and boarding costs, along with her husband Dr. Doppler. They included a very generous additional sum, with the explanation that the Academy would 'understand what it was for soon enough'.

_House Master's notes_

-Sir R. L. Stevenson, House Master.

Hawkins, or 'Jim' as he would be called, did not settle into the Academy easily at first. His initial weeks were fraught with arguments and fights; Jim's term as crew on the _RLS_ _Legacy _gave him certain attitudes and habits that he has been reluctant to break. It took a month alone to stop him sleeping in a hammock, which he arrived with and strung up anywhere that seemed to please him – between beds, across rooms, even up on the roof on one occasion. Cadets are meant to be in their beds by 21:00 hours, and at this time Hawkins was generally anywhere _but_.

The kitchen staff, however, are incredibly fond of him, and if he is to be found anywhere, it will be there. I have learned that if Hawkins is not in the kitchen, then he does not _want _to be found.

His social skills also left something to be desired initially – by his own admission, his previous company were largely made up of pirates, and a few of the more unsavory habits appear to have rubbed off. When referred to as a 'commoner' by one of the other cadets, Hawkins spat on him.

After I broke up the brawl, cadet N. Snobber protested that it was Hawkins who threw the first punch. In spite of being warned that 'he deserved it' was not an appropriate response, nor punching people appropriate behaviour, Jim continued to get into trouble with his room mates, and by the two month mark had completely abandoned his bed and slept in the kitchen with the staff.

The Headmaster was consulted about these difficulties, but in lieu of his circumstances, he escaped reprimand. After the first term he was moved to another room, and excepting his sudden disappearance and mysterious return, he has since gotten along with his new bunk mates. Hawkins could not be described as the 'ringleader' as such, but he is consistently at the forefront of any trouble he and his band of friends get into.

In spite of Jim being an argumentative trouble-maker with severe authority issues, I find myself charmed by him frequently – most often when he is trying to get out of hot water. He is a difficult but brilliant individual, and has certainly brought something unique to the Academy. Snobber had it coming to him, anyway.

_Academic Performance_

**Navigation**

_Mapwork_

Tutor: Admiral R. Clements

Grade: B

Hawkins' mapwork is on the whole acceptable, although he initially expressed confusion with the standard apparatus. His three-dimensional map-reading is far stronger than the traditional two-dimensional, but he has picked it up with great ease. His enthusiasm could be greater, but his work is solid.

_Astral_

Tutor: Dr. J Musker

Grade: A

Jim's astral navigation is inconsistent but brilliant. It quickly came to my notice that he does not use any of the standard apparatus or charts that cadets are given – in fact, when forced, he _pretends _to use it. His actual methods seem to rely on an inexplicable ability to map almost all of the known skies in his head; for all I can work out, he charts out an immense three-dimensional planetary map from memory, and this is the reference he uses. While this is impressive when it works, the fallibility of the human mind leads to gaps and inconsistencies in his ability. However, he is otherwise a good student, though his insistences that 'Treasure Planet' is real have made him somewhat of a laughing stock in class.

**History**

Tutor: Dr. Hyde Pierce

Grade: F

Hawkins holds what I can only describe as contempt for the history of the universe, his home planet, and even the Interstellar Academy; he instead favours tall tales and fairy stories about pirates. His end of year assignment on 'The Mystery of Captain Flint unravelled' was a truly remarkable piece of fiction; when I rejected it, he brought a lunatic android into the classroom to tell the other cadets about Captain Flint and "how he used the portals on Treasure Planet to travel across vast stretches of space instantly". Hawkins has refused to write another report, the robot broke several of my things, and it has been agreed that he will drop my subject as soon as humanly possible.

**Alien identification and Interstellar Biology**

Tutor: J. Rzeznik

Grade: C

Hawkins experiences and travel have clearly helped him in his knowledge of Alien species, putting him at an advantage to some of the more sheltered cadets; however, he lacks any passion for the subject and shows no interest in mastering alien languages beyond a variety of frankly alarming curses in Flatula. His interstellar biology is slightly stronger, with occasional bursts of enthusiasm for galactic wildlife, but he seems to prefer tinkering with mechanics in my classes to paying any attention to their organic equivalents.

**Piloting**

_Large ships, crew work_

Master: Admiral J. Newton

Grade: A

If I'm not much mistaken, Jim is far more comfortable on the Academy's ships than he is in his dorm room. He is an outstandingly hard worker, thorough, efficient and seems to think that every task given to him is no more than a trifle compared to what he's used to. His knowledge of ropes and knots is flawless, and he has proven to be capable of duties all the way up to and even beyond the level of First Mate.

He would in fact be perfect, if not for two things: his issues with authority, and those with his other crew-mates. Jim is, oddly enough, considering his slovenly appearance, a perfectionist when it comes to rigging, and on his first trip he personally re-did almost every preparation on the ship because he did not believe his fellow cadets had carried out their parts well enough. It delayed the launch by two hours, but as the Captain aboard, I must profess not a thing went wrong on the journey, which is completely unheard of for a first year excursion.

Next, Jim is happy to obey orders when he sees the point, but anything he deems to be incorrect, unnecessary or unfair is treated with contempt and difficult behaviour. He does not like to take orders from those believes he knows better than – and even if he _does _know better, he should not directly disobey the orders of a superior officer. This was most sharply displayed during the last assessment of the year, when he not only ignored the orders of a crew-mate who outranked him, but did the exact _opposite _of what he'd been told.

If he were anyone else, this would merit an instant fail and possible expulsion, but Jim's actions in fact prevented an accident that would have been the fault of the Second Mate he'd disobeyed. He saved a considerable amount of the ship's equipment and prevented potentially fatal injury. Unfortunately this has only strengthened his belief that he is always right, and he has fast become _the _most unpopular cadet to crew with amongst his peers.

However, I feel it must be said that out of all my pupils, Jim is the only one I would employ on one of my ships, and it would most likely be as Captain.

_Small ships_

Master: B. Murray

Grade: ?

I did not give Jimbo a grade because it is not possible to do so. In his first week at the Academy he broke into my workshop and built himself a solar surfer out of spare parts, which if it hadn't been such a fine machine I would have torn up for scrap. His acrobatics on it around the Academy have been the subject of much chatter among cadets and staff alike, and he has even spawned followers – although he's yet to be beaten by one in a race.

On a similar note, Jimbo's flying on longboats, riggers and any small solar craft is simultaneously the best and damned craziest thing I have ever seen. He does not outperform his classmates in the sense of going above the highest standard, he does so by performing _outside_ the limits of what we thought was possible. He has broken far too many of my ships, but as his mechanics master will confirm he has rebuilt every one as good as new – thank you to the Dopplers, by the way, for their generous financial support of Jimbo's collateral damage.

Watching him fly is, for lack of words, _inspiring_, and it is therefore completely impossible to grade him. According to the syllabus and mark scheme, he ought to fail on multiple counts of recklessness, incorrect technique, misuse and _abuse _of equipment, and for general endangerment of himself and those around him. However, to do so would be completely and totally wrong, because he is probably the best flier I have ever seen. Not that I would ever get into a ship with him.

**Mechanics**

Tutor: Professor J. Gordon-Levitt

Grade: B

Hawkins has a natural flair for mechanics, which is visible throughout all of his work. His thinking stretches far beyond the boundaries of the given material, so he frequently surpasses them.

When given a longboat to repair, he remodels it. When asked to build a clock, he produces one that also projects the cycles of the moon and sun. However, this leads to his key failing, which is his frequent refusal, or inability, to do what is specifically asked of him.

His unconventional and innovative designs are meretricious, but when cadets are given a specifically flight-disabled longboat to practice the repair of solar sails, Hawkins is _not _meant to reverse the engine cut-off and take it for a spin. I have never known a boy so fast to hotwire any machine, flightworthy or otherwise. He once somehow managed to tamper with my pocket watch so that it ran an hour fast on even days of the week and an hour slow on odd ones. _How _he did it I cannot know, and he refuses to tell me.

Hawkins' sense of humour also leads to trouble when it comes to machines. He has constructed a somewhat alarming array of pranks and traps, but he can usually be dissuaded with promises to let him work on his solar surfer after class. He tends to the machine with what I can only call parental love, and I have submitted a number of his sketches and blueprints to a prominent craftsman, who is constructing them for sale at a considerable premium.

The only time I have ever seen Hawkins at a loss was after his much talked of two week disappearance mid-way through the term. This is because his _reappearance _was in my workshop at three 'o clock in the morning, grief-stricken and tending to a severely damaged android that he referred to as Ben. He begged for my help in repairing 'his friend', as he called him, and was ecstatic when I was able to revive the robot – who has since, I might add, sworn to save my life in return and causes me _no end _of trouble.

**Combat**

Tutor: M. Short

Grade: C

While in a typical bar-room brawl I do not doubt that Hawkins would emerge a triumphant victor, he has complete and total disregard for the rules of combat. In fencing he is known to kick his opponent's foil out of their hand mid-way through the bout if he feels he is outmatched, and blatantly ignores the point system and rules of engagement. His hand-to-hand skills are quite honestly intimidating, and even students of greater size and strength are reluctant to spar with him, because he is known to bite, spit, and throw nearby items in order to gain the advantage. As far as Hawkins is concerned, winning is the important thing, which I suspect has roots in some traumatising experiences prior to his enrolment at the academy. However, while he is keen to secure victory, I do not feel I can award him a grade that reflects his spotless record of victory, due to his inelegance in combat compared to some of the other classically-trained cadets.

I will admit, though, that if I were to find myself engaged in battle once more, I would choose Hawkins by my side any day, because his devotion to protect those he cares for is nothing short of obsessive.

_Extra-curricular activities_

Hawkins does not participate in any of the sports teams at the Academy, except for a brief stint where he was a member of the longboat-racing team. This was short-lived, as while an excellent and unbeatable racer, on his first inter-varsity race he managed to damage several other ships and destroyed part of the course – marking buoys do not take well to being knocked about at 50 interstellar knots, and the other team was not pleased to find their expensive equipment smashed to pieces. The race nearly had to be cancelled, and the furious judge refused to give Hawkins first place. It was soon after suggested that Hawkins was probably not suitable for the longboat team, and he spends much of his free time in private study or practice of mechanics and maps, or helping the staff in the kitchen.

Although unofficial, it seems appropriate to mention that Hawkins has formed a solar-surfer _club_ of kind. What started with his lone antics in the construction of and acrobatic performance on a solar-sufer around the Academy – usually at unseemly hours of the night – has turned into a rabble of cadets who build and race their machines around various parts of the space port. They have caused considerably mayhem and some very costly damage – thanks must be extended to the Dopplers for their generous support, as it has proven indispensable in repairing both damaged property _and_ egos, which seems to follow in Hawkins' wake wherever he goes.

_Additional remarks_

_R. L. Stevenson_

In spite of his turbulent record of behaviour and academic performance, Hawkins' position at the Academy was seriously endangered only once. A few weeks into the second semester of the academic year, Jim disappeared from the Academy one night, taking his solar-surfer and one of the Academy's longboats with him. Searches of the grounds, the space port, and nearby planets did not turn up any results, and after a week had elapsed it was assumed that Hawkins must have run away. It was considered an unfortunate loss, until he returned in style by crashing a much-damaged longboat into the main building, then broke into the mechanics building in the middle of the night to consult his professor about an android companion of his. The android has since become quite a blight on Professor Gordon-Levitt, and rumours of Jim's adventure have been wild. Popular talk seems to suggest that Jim was entreated by an old pirating friend to lend aid to him, and although it is not school policy to listen to hearsay, I honestly wouldn't be surprised.

In conclusion, I must remark that Jim's presence at the Interstellar Academy has been simultaneously one of the best and worst things to ever happen to the institution, and that as long as students like James Hawkins continue to walk through our doors, the future of space-travel is bright. _Dangerous_, I won't deny, but bright.


End file.
